Ramsey Russell Worldwide: North Dakota and Nick Marcyes

Rocky Leflore: Welcome to The End of the Line Podcast, I’m Rocky Leflore in the Duck South Studios at Oxford, Mississippi. Joining me on the other end of the line double R Ramsey Russell. Ramsey, Welcome to fall bud.

Ramsey Russell: Yes sir. Is it fall yet?

Rocky Leflore: Man, this is probably upper 50s here in Oxford, this morning?

Ramsey Russell: Wow, come on down and needed to push on down here to Brandon.

Rocky Leflore: It’s really cooled off.

Ramsey Russell: That is good to hear. It’s that time of year man and I’m fired up for it.

“I always wonder what the pressure on waterfowl does these day, because 20-30 years ago there weren’t that number of people going to Canada that there is today, I always just a thought that comes with every picture that I see coming from up there, you sit there and think, really the complaining of the migration overall. That grass goes together with the travel to Canada and I’m not saying that it is a huge factor, but I think there’s a ton of factors of where we are today as it pertains to the migration of waterfowl. I’m just saying it possibly could be.”

Rocky Leflore: It seems like it’s been cool up in the Dakota, Nebraska and North for a while now. Then they’ve been killing lots of birds. Ramsey, I always think every time I see, because I’m friends with a lot of people that are up there, that are guiding up there and it makes me think, I’m not saying that it does do anything. I always wonder what the pressure on waterfowl does these day, because 20-30 years ago there weren’t that number of people going to Canada that there is today, I always just a thought that comes with every picture that I see coming from up there, you sit there and think, really the complaining of the migration overall. That grass goes together with the travel to Canada and I’m not saying that it is a huge factor, but I think there’s a ton of factors of where we are today as it pertains to the migration of waterfowl. I’m just saying it possibly could be. Am I way off track on that one?

“I don’t know, Rocky. We’re still getting some parts of Canada there aren’t many hunters those places are real hard to find. And then you get off into some of these communities where there’s hotels and infrastructure and every single hotel and every single restaurant is staked out, another name brand outfitter, some good, some bad, some better and some worse but nonetheless, a whole lot of outfitters.”

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know, Rocky. We’re still getting some parts of Canada there aren’t many hunters those places are real hard to find. And then you get off into some of these communities where there’s hotels and infrastructure and every single hotel and every single restaurant is staked out, another name brand outfitter, some good, some bad, some better and some worse but nonetheless, a whole lot of outfitters. Some of them running 2 or 3 van a day of clients. And I wonder myself about the cumulative effect of hunting harvest. But hey, my faith is in the bean counters I guess they know how many birds are being killed and how it affects migration and the overall population of ducks I guess. But I think it’s more than it was back when I started going up there in the late 90s it seemed like it is. I mean it’s rare, it’s more common today to be hunting somewhere and here’s somebody else shoot in the distance. Now, you get out in parts of the US, some of the flocks and you know what I mean? I mean, you’re all hunting, you hear lots of folks shooting all around you and depend on where you hunt, sometimes you even hear their conversation. But at one time, not too long ago you go to Canada and you never heard another shot, I see a lots. One time last year I was coming into a town, side of town I think about 14,000 people it’s about the size of Brandon Mississippi and 2 lane, no passing and I’m just one of the kind of guy I can’t stand looking at the back of the trailer, back of something, just right there can’t move. And finally it was my turn to, oh that kind of bend over and took a glance and it wasn’t just one of them looked like maybe 2 of them up there in front of me. So we had a long straight away, no passing. I can pass now I floored it 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 outfitter trailers, I passed all bumper to bumper coming down the road coming in and none of them were affiliated. It was all different name brands on the side of the trailers and I just gotten thinking, wow. But like got Arkansas maybe, that’s when I realized there’s a lot of folks hunting up here now but why wouldn’t you, there are a lot of ducks? I don’t know what it does, how it relates to a lot of ducks down coming to Mississippi anymore. But you just got to wonder Rocky, I wonder there’s a lot of people going a lot of different places. I feel like knowing a lot of boys as clients and friends of mine, there are also traveling in different places, chances are the guys that are going to Canada also going to the Midwest or the pacific fly away or chasing species, it’s just a whole different. Like I said the other day, it’s a real big world and this is not my granddaddy’s day, my granddaddy couldn’t imagine. I’m telling you, I was a practical little Southern lawyer that man would have in  his wildest dreams imagined jumping on a plane to go Canada or anywhere to shoot a duck, let alone 5 times, 6 times, 7 times, 8 times a year, like a lot of folks do. I don’t know, I guess the models or algorithms or whatever they punch in to manage duck I guess it accounts for all that but last year was the first year since ever that I had actually received harvest survey from Canada, I wondered if they even surveyed Americans. Because after 20 something years ago and I’ve never gotten one and I did and I filled it out and send it in. I just wondered, a lot of folks going, but the hunting can be good.

Rocky Leflore: It looks like it’s been a great season after the difficult season that they had their last year. It looks like it has swung the opposite way this year for sure.

Ramsey Russell: Things you got to remember about Canada and that whole Northern Prairie is there’s wet years and there’s dry years but it can be spotty, it can be real dry in one area and wetter in another. A lot of ducks will concentrate, like I was hunting in some of these outfitters I’ve been keeping up with on social media friends of mine and they’re mauling the ducks. And then when we were up there freelancing that area man, it’s a big area, we never really got into ducks. We were targeting white geese, but we never really got in an area that the ducks were flocking in. So, they’re not just evenly distributed. They might be heavy in one area and lighter in the other. And one thing that surprised a lot of first timers that I’ve talked to when they go to Canada is, you’re liable to get up at 3:30 AM and drive an hour and a half, 2 hours that’s a lot of ground to go hunt. I’m at a point now, I mean I’ll go and do it there, but I don’t get up in Brandon Mississippi and drive 2 hours to go duck hunting much in fact rarely anymore.

“Ramsey, after you left Canada a couple of weeks ago you drop down into North Dakota and hunted with a good friend of ducks south and a friend of yours, Nick Maryces Dirty Bird outfitters. And while you were there you sat down with him and did a little interview with him. What you guys talked about?”

Rocky Leflore: Ramsey, after you left Canada a couple of weeks ago you drop down into North Dakota and hunted with a good friend of ducks south and a friend of yours, Nick Maryces Dirty Bird outfitters.

Ramsey Russell: Oh yeah, he and –

Rocky Leflore: And while you were there you sat down with him and did a little interview with him. What you guys talked about?

“I actually know 6 boss Matthew Phil. Very good friend of mine that relationship started, he booked some trips to Mexico and we shared some time in the blind and got to know each other. And he runs a heck of a spring snow goose hunt down in Arkansas and up in the Midwest and then runs his hunt in North Dakota.”

Ramsey Russell: We talked about duck hunting in North Dakota, which is a lot like duck hunting in Canada a lot like that. Prairie pothole and wet years, they have a really nice duck production this year. They’re way up on duck production because they had water and part of Canada did not. I actually know 6 boss Matthew Phil. Very good friend of mine that relationship started, he booked some trips to Mexico and we shared some time in the blind and got to know each other. And he runs a heck of a spring snow goose hunt down in Arkansas and up in the Midwest and then runs his hunt in North Dakota. I don’t know if we talked about this on the podcast, but Nick and I certainly talked about it during the afternoon, while we were out scouting. I’ve never really promoted hunting or hunts or outfitters in North Dakota. Now somebody called me up. You want to go shoot a swan or you want to go duck or goose hunt like we did by all means call dirty bird outfitters I think their best in the business. I love them to death. I love Nick, I like them personally, I like them professionally they do a very good job. But I’ve never really carried that on my webpage and Nick had asked me one afternoon why? And I said, in a lot of ways to me North Dakota right now and it’s changing represents kind of like this last frontier. You can still knock on doors, in my whole lifetime I can’t imagine knocking on doors in Mississippi or the Deep South. Go hunt anything of value but that state still is, their rules still are and they get a whole lot of freelance traffic over there. I know a lot of people better up there right now or heading that way. And boy, I’ll tell you what you get around some of those hubs in North Dakota, some of those big areas Devil’s Lake for example, it is an ocean of what they call blue plate from the next state over, they come over there to freelance. It’s great. Like the hotel I was staying at, I left to go eat dinner with Nick and his family, I don’t know what time, I left about 05:00 parking lot was empty. I was backed up right to my bedroom and I come back that night, Friday night day before the opener I had to park dang near to a block away. Flap full of out of staters coming in there to hunt. When we talk a little bit about that – Nick’s a fun guy, very knowledgeable, he’s got a wildlife degree also, he’s a fisheries biologist during the off season for North Dakota and then guides and live in that area for over a decade and that man knows everybody and everything. And all the ducks and you know what was crazy? I was up there the last weekend of September and there were tons of blue wing still up there, tons of blue wings and just ducks galore, ducks everywhere. We would go by one area, I mean, Rocky there must have been 1500 birds sitting in that field and I am like “whoa” he say oh, they all ain’t nothing. Oh look another one make 500 birds and plus 500, nah they ain’t nothing. There was so much water and even though a lot of the habitat had a lot of the grain crops have not yet been cut them farmers were hurting just like in Canada. They were late getting it in not because of water they’re late getting it out – I showed a picture to – send a picture of soybeans to a friend of mine and just from the picture, he deals a lot with low grade soybeans at times said, he just said that’s 30 damage. You’re from sitting out there in that moisture. And do you know we shot birds now, we shot geese and shot ducks but what was so interesting to me see all these internet scout is asking about scouting report. How’s it going to be with the ducks down – my God boy there’s more ducks you shake stick out in North Dakota right now. That has there, problem is hunting them. But you know what? Them farmers don’t want you nowhere near their field when it’s wet, nowhere near it. You need tracks like Nick and him got but now you’ve got to track in from maybe a couple of miles away because he don’t want you down his turn rose either and you don’t want to be down there and go sliding off. Because you ain’t going to get out easy without tearing stuff up. And we went on one feed scouting report, educated scouting report, I didn’t see it, it couldn’t wait to do it, supposedly there were 6000 birds on that field and them boys know how to count. Let me tell you they are accurate. They didn’t mean 600 they meant 6000 and I was vibrating. Man it was opening day, 6000 birds and you should have seen, I mean for the 3 quarter mile, I actually did hoof in a little bit feathers and duck crap everywhere. I mean those bird, they weren’t just there, they had been there and I said, well it’s going to be quick, no we didn’t scratch the limit that morning. We killed some birds, not the limit. We tagged the birds, went back, regroup and come back out that afternoon and finished up our limit. It wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting right there before dark a lot of birds started coming in, but we were done. And then the following day while we’re doing that Nick was out scouting, me and his dad and brothers and friends were hunting and this was the big one. This one was Fred Sanford, oh this was the big one out, he didn’t found this son, he found it. And they weren’t even the same birds we were hunting, it’s about 5 miles away. This was the gold vein of waterfowl, probably 500 or 600 Grey geese and several 1000 mallards and pin tails. And we deliberated looking at google earth because it would have been a crosswind but up slope about a half mile from an area they were laid up on the roost. You got to be careful that you don’t want to blow them birds out. But because the wind was different and everything else we felt like, it’s all right. We’re not going to bother those birds sitting on that roost and again we get there and they’re just signed galore. I mean, they’re just like every duck on earth has been walking around in them fields. Got to set up, got into position, shooting time came and went didn’t fire shot, didn’t see a duck, didn’t see a goose. About 45 minutes after shooting time, hour after shooting time 3 geese come out of nowhere “boom” we killed them. Well, we didn’t get skunked. That’s what Nick says. Well we didn’t get skunked, I guess we get another 30 minutes Rocky it was fixing to rain and man, I can tell you this right now you hunting on the grain field if those birds are eating the deal is you might as well stick it out because once those birds get in the field they ain’t leaving they’re there. A normal routine they fly off roosts, go get a drink of water, they come feed, they leave the feed there to go get a drink of water to go back to roost and they repeat. When it rains all better off to go to the field to eat. We stuck it out, I’m going to say 2 hours into it, we had one duck apiece for 6 of us, maybe one duck apiece and 3 geese it just began to look like one of them days then the rain started. And crazily enough we stuck it out and by the time we were all soaking wet while I live in, we’re all wet while leave, we start shooting ducks not crazy numbers, nothing like what we’d expect. But we started shooting ducks and the really crazy thing about it was, it had been all mallards and pin tails in there. The feathers on the ground were all mallards and pin tails and Canada geese, well we were shooting Gadwalls and wigeons, mostly Gadwalls and wigeons and green wings that would just come out of nowhere and jump into it with the one pin tail rule you got to be real careful. When I know down here on winter ground you look, oh yes, that’s the mallard and that’s the pin tail hunt not up there, man. If they fail banks give you a profile, good profile, it’s easy to tell what they are if you pay real close attention when they’re waffling in. You can tell pin tail they got a very elegant the way they kind of rock into the decoys but they’re basic molt brown birds, you’ve got to really pay attention to the limits one. It brings up a good point just north of there, across that Canadian boundary a mallard’s a mallard you can shoot 8. 8 hens, 8 drakes, 8 young, 8 old don’t matter mix match, boom, 8 mallards is 8 mallards. Drop down North Dakota limit 6, 2 of which can be a hen mallard this year, one of which can be a pin tail this year. And what I realized last year hunt with them. I really enjoyed that. It just up the game and up the ante a little bit, you have to really pay attention and that just took it to a little bit different level. I loved it. We all did. You’re sitting in a blind 6 guys, you got 5 mallards working around you, they’re working getting the wind right and everybody’s kind of whispering third one from the left, all right, not in a second and you have to communicate to everybody cause whoever gets the shot you need to know which ones the drake, you don’t need no more hen in the blind, preferably you don’t want any hens, but sometimes you get them and it just upset. Times when they’re really coming into the field good, you’re not want to shoot hens and 6 people in a lay out blind or a pile of blind just whispering and communicating. Birds are working and they get a little cell and pick back up and worked back around and come, I mean they’re just sitting right in the decoys, he spot one. Okay, that’s a drake. If you got 2 guns down shoots, you can’t snap up on the drake. You just sit out that volley. Rocky, it’s just fun. I like it and it is kind of cool when the sun is right and the ducks are working ultra-close like that. Sometimes all you see is the color that little juvenile drake’s bill. That’s the only way you’re going to see a hatch here drake mallard and tell what he is, it’s the color of the bill. He got to be close, that’s fun. So that’s what I talked about and Nick Maryces after he and I got done talking and I’m seeing a trend. So fair warning to anybody I interviewed after I turn off the phone and lock the episode, I’m going to return it right back on because everybody I’m talking to now we have such great conversations after the recorded podcast about some pretty cool things. And one of the things Nick got to talking about, you may recall a few weeks ago in Saskatchewan – A few weeks ago with Ira, we started talking about some changes in Canada pressure being put on some of those landowners by freelance hunters. Some of the complications and some of the reaction and it looks like that could be coming down the pipe for North Dakota too. And Nick’s estimation it failed by a narrow margin, a new rule about posted lands and about public access on private lands. And it looks like for some of the same reasons too many people wanting free access to somebody else’s land. The things could be changing in North Dakota also, you know times change. We live in a mighty big world this year nowadays and things could change their.

Rocky Leflore: To hear you talk about that a couple of days that you were there and you just have this as a hunter looking at Canada, looking at North Dakota, I’m going there and saying to yourself, I’m going there to hunt man, we’ll smash them every day, it doesn’t happen every day sometimes the conditions just going right and to hear it –

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s right because hunting is hunting. The reason it wasn’t for lack of scouting and know how, let me tell you this, the reason we didn’t just go in there and smash them lickety split like I thought we were both mornings and I have done with these boys before, it had nothing to do with the game or the plan or the location or the scouting or any of the elements of going to hunting it had everything to do with the fact with that much water those birds have lots of options. You see the birds on this field for the last 2 days when it’s been out of the southeast and on the day you make a plan, it’s raining or it’s not raining and the winds out of the north and the east of – and those birds may come off in a whole different area, they’ve got so much options. There’s so much habitat flooded right now that a duck make a big living in and again remember talking about shower, ducks have to be a certain age before their body start processing grain. And if you’ve got a lot of cohorts laying off of in that roost that are young birds, they make their living in water so they got a whole lot there disposable right now to jump off in some flooded potholes and flooded ag that has got a lot of bugs they can make a living on. You see what I’m saying? And maybe the majority rules out, so there’s options for birds. It’s not a guarantee man. You make the game, you go have fun and it’s crazy because we have some 2 great shoots. Well none of them just lights out 30 minute-hour long slaughter fest neither one of them those ain’t no fun man, they really aren’t. They are maybe for a little bit, but really and truly you don’t. It’s the time in the blind, I’m telling you man, one of the guys bought a brand new grill and fired it up we ate good in the blind one day and it’s very entertaining. He has got a real good dry wit. We kidded into podcast about having a Morning Prayer vigil for our buddy Matthew Phil being stuck on an oil rig instead of hunt with us not really, we just cut jokes all day and send him text and mess with him. We miss hunting with him, but we had fun at his expense.

“Well, Ramsey we need to get to that interview with Nick now. We’re just about out of time and let’s see what he’s got to say about the hunting there in North Dakota.”

Rocky Leflore: Well, Ramsey we need to get to that interview with Nick now. We’re just about out of time and let’s see what he’s got to say about the hunting there in North Dakota.

Ramsey Russell: This is Ramsey Russell getducks.com, its duck’s season somewhere. It is late September and I am in North Dakota for the duck season opener. It’s kind of becoming my tradition. I really like to be up here in this part of the world. As similar as it is to Canada, it’s different too. In Canada you’re shooting pre molted birds, but you can shoot 8 of them, down here you can shoot 6. But you can still going to shoot 2 hens, one pin tail this year. And last year just I realized hunting up here, it really just added a whole another level to what duck hunting is as compared to just an hour two north of here in Canada. I’m joined by Nick Maryces Dirty Bird Outfitters. I know Matthew Phil owner of Dirty Bird could not be here and we had a little Prayer Vigil in the blind for him every morning, not really Matt, we laughed our butts off because you weren’t there and you missing some great hunting. But anyway guys, you all tune into my guy Nick, he’s good duck guide up here. Nick, what about it?

Nick Maryces: Couple good days of hunting a little slow yesterday but toughed it out to the rain today, killed quite a next bag actually.

Ramsey Russell: But see that’s a curious thing is like we drove around and all these boys back home and talk about scouting. I know, when I scouted my camp, I go look at a few duck holes maybe while I’m deer hunting. We put some miles on the other day, Friday morning we put some miles on.

Nick Maryces: Oh yeah, average morning putting 150 miles on doing the same thing in the evening. Normally scouting in the evenings, hunt in mornings but yeah it’s a whole another ball game up here. Scouting is actually – in my opinion scouting you’re going and looking for new places, new birds, going knocking on doors getting permission. A lot of people down south aren’t used to, I kind of look at scouting down south and you guys are looking at spots per say. I used 94 as a breaker. A lot of times I’ll scout south of that or north of that depending on what we see at times go back to them certain areas. But I was expanding, looking at new ground.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t say locations and I know you don’t either. But would it be fair to say that from where we’re sitting right now, guys we’re sitting in a hotel room, it’s down pouring and he’s fixing to go scout. I’m fixing to get packed up and head to the house. But Nick would it be fair to say that from where we’re sitting where you all are headquarter that you roughly cover about a 2-hour radius when you start to scout?

Nick Maryces: Oh yeah, easily.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a whole lot of square miles of habitat.

Nick Maryces: Oh yeah. And lots of different terrain as you go further west to get more into the potholes. We’re kind of right on the edge where we’re at. But yeah, a lot of terrain.

Ramsey Russell: And I noticed too that you don’t really take a day off. It’s like you’re constantly – not just looking where are the birds, but you’re patterning them. It’s like if you miss a day or two, you might miss how they’re transitioning or what they’re doing.

Nick Maryces: I catch myself literally driving out of the way to follow birds. Like if I’m not around the town to get something, I might take a longer route just to see the country, see if there’s any new birds kicking around a certain area or checking up on birds I’ve seen a few days prior to see if they’re doing the same pattern using the same field, maybe the same drinking hole something like that.

Ramsey Russell: And its wet this year, it’s real wet.

Nick Maryces: Extremely wet. In North Dakota, if you want to hunt fields you’re going to have something with the tracks, either a 4 wheeler or side by side or you’re going to be huffing a lot of decoys.

Ramsey Russell: Walking in. Because of course I haven’t been to

North Dakota a lot, but it’s very wet. I know some of the roads we try to drive through and everything up here guys is laid out by the miles. You can give somebody direction to your house by saying its 3 miles that way, take a right and go 2 and look for the white house on the right. Everything is laid out by the miles on the section lines down here, so it’s pretty easy to get around very rare to see a curve. It’s in fact you don’t want to be ticking on your phone too hard in case one of those surprise curves sneaks up on you found out the other day. But what do you think the water has done to North Dakota? Like, here’s what I’m trying to say when you get a really wet year, does it make it easier to make it harder, does it make it better, does it make it worse?

Nick Maryces: Well, if we get water early on say in the spring, it helps production a lot. I think North Dakota is up 26% over its long term average on ducks. And then honkers was up compared to the last – I’d say 5 or 6 years on production wise. We’ve got a lot of dark geese this year.

Ramsey Russell: And these are all giant Canada’s?

Nick Maryces: Yes. And then if you have a wet fall, it can make hunting more interesting, I would call it. It’ll spread the birds out if we have a dry year compared to a wet year, dry year’s going to concentrate the birds like you might only have a few bodies of water that are roosting a lot of birds you can kind of key in on these areas. Right now, a duck can just spot land anywhere he wants and be sitting on one.

Ramsey Russell: In the weather year – like I noticed this morning and I’ve shot all the puddle ducks shot some red heads up, over the years hunting in Canada and dry field hunting I’ve been doing it quite a while but I’ve shot a lot of different species, but I expect to see mallards and pin tails. That’s what I expect to see when I’m dry field hunting. This morning we got our one pin tail apiece limit of pin tails, we shot a few mallards and Godly did the Gadwall – hey, you Mississippi boys listen up, we made the Gadwalls pay rent this morning but the wigeons and the minute they came in and kind of arced up everybody saw those white bellies those white wing patches, we all knew what they were, but we shot quite a few wigeons this morning. And then we shot that flock of green wings, is that normal or is that a function of it being a wet year?

Nick Maryces: It’s kind of normal. Definitely the green wing teal I’ve shot them throughout the years doesn’t matter if it’s wet or dry that flock at the time of day that I’ve kind of come in that was a little different. Normally when I shoot green wings, dry feeding it’s right away in the morning, right at first light, right at shooting time, you’ll have them coming in super low. Wigeon, it depends, we’ll shoot them here and there. I’ve had some amazing wigeon hunts and then we’ll have some years where we really don’t shoot that many out in the fields. I think it kind of goes up with how their breeding numbers were that year. And then Gadwalls, they’ve kind of been the surprise I would say the last 4-5 years. I don’t know if it’s an actual thing or not but me and some of my buddies is up here, we’re kind of putting two and two together and we think these gadwalls are starting to follow mallards out to target dry fields, especially soybean fields. I had some hunts last fall that we absolutely shot like 4-5 man limits that were pretty much gadwalls with a few mallards mixed in. So, it definitely makes an interesting one kind of how he touched on picking drake mallards out of brown ducks, when you’re thinking that’s what you’re doing, you stand up or sit up out of your blind and its gadwalls they’ll catch you off guard because you just see your real brown duck to start with thinking they’re all hens until they flash out light at you.

Ramsey Russell: Well, their behavior is totally different, especially this morning and the ones we shot yesterday around that slough than the ones back home. I think of Gadwalls typically as a first pass bird and every subsequent pass they make, they’re getting higher not lower. They’re just very subtly flipping you off as they get further away. But around opening day of dove season, Mississippi Labor Day weekend there were a lot of big blue wing teal reports down in Texas and Louisiana even over into Mississippi delta. I knew some guys had 300, 400 or 500 teal tucked away. And I haven’t really chased those blue wings down south in the last 3 years. I’ve been up here in the northern tier but I was shocked at the number of blue wings we saw up here. That’s got to be a function of all this water combined with the warm weather but I mean it’s a ton of water.

Nick Maryces: Yeah. Well, and it’s also their production was up like a lot – I don’t know the exact number, but there was a lot of blue wing teal producing are to this year.

Ramsey Russell: And that would make sense that maybe they had a better year and there were some later hatches, maybe some of these birds that are still hanging around in Mississippi very late after the main push, maybe they made it up and had a late clutch and they’re still hanging out. We didn’t shoot any in the last couple of days, so I didn’t get to see what age class, but I would guess it would be a lot of breeding females and hatch year birds. Did you notice that most of the ducks, most of the mallards and pin tails especially were all adult birds?

Nick Maryces: Yeah. Big time. We actually shot some pretty colored up drakes and on the pin tails definitely didn’t see any notched tail feathers on them. Same with the mallards, really the only hunt that we had yesterday, we could have shot some younger birds kind of over water, kind of flooded field but if you’re hunting a pothole or something, you’d definitely be shooting younger birds right now.

Ramsey Russell: So if we went to water that makes sense because everybody saying the hatch was a little late this year Mat Schauer and I were talking a couple of weeks ago that the younger birds, they’ve got to develop a period of time before their digestive tract will let them process grain. They’re focusing right now invertebrates and I would guess these wetlands, every wetland I drove by, is just slap full of submerged aquatic and cat tails, it’s got to be loaded with the invertebrates, protein and fat rich invertebrates for those birds. Tell me about the Canada geese because I know several years ago, north Dakota adapted a 15 Canada goose limit. I think, was it the first 15 days of August or the second 15 days of August?

Nick Maryces: Used to run from August 15 to September 15 is how our early honker season. Since I’ve lived out here, which is 11 years, that’s how it’s always ran. When I first moved out here, I think it was 5 and then they bumped it to 8 because a lot of the complaints are getting from farmers from all the ag damage that these geese were caused on their fields having a clutch out in little slough out in the middle of a soybean field and they can do some damage to soybeans they’ll walk up and strip them right off the plant. And then they bumped into that 15 and this is kind of the first bump back here I’ve seen to where we’ve had as many honkers as we used to. When they used to be 8 apiece me and a couple of buddies we would go out and we would kill our 8 honkers no problem apiece. We would literally kill them out so fast we could hunt the same field 2-3 days in a row. Now with that 15 bird limit we got a lot of people that – a lot more people are coming to North Dakota for the honker season, guys might not be letting fields build as big as they used to. Like the problem I run into, I don’t hunt the early season as much as I used to but the reason why is, if you see 50 geese out in the field, somebody’s probably going to hunt him. We used to not hunt to feed unless it had at least 200 honkers, but this year has kind of changed. We’ve hunted some pretty big feeds.

Ramsey Russell: It seems like North Dakota in some ways is western Minnesota now because I sure saw a lot of blue plates out there on the roads. Is that where most of your guys are coming from to chase geese?

Nick Maryces: I would say, yes. Minnesota some out of Wisconsin, Iowa them states that are close by. The early honker season doesn’t count towards their 14 day license for regular waterfowl and it’s a relatively cheap license, it’s only $50. So guys think and it opened so early August 15. There’s not that many places that you can go hunt waterfall in August and have an opportunity at a big numbers up.

Ramsey Russell: It’s going to be for big Canada geese, if it is because there’s so many up in this northern tier, there’s so many resident populations now that have built these department national resource agencies are trying to curtail them back. So ag depredation is a big problem, you think that’s what’s driving this is strictly ag.

Nick Maryces: In my opinion 100%. I wish they would drop it back to 8 actually, compared to the 15 bird limit, but –

Ramsey Russell: Why? Because it makes more of a quality experience?

Nick Maryces: Yeah, because I think with the 15 bird limit, everybody when they’re coming to North Dakota has it in their mind that they’re going to kill duck. Oh the limits 15, that’s what we’re going to shoot everyday per person.

Ramsey Russell: And if they don’t, they’ll sit out there till 03:00 in afternoon and just got them out of the field.

Nick Maryces: Yeah. They’ll do stuff that you shouldn’t do. They’ll get frustrated because they’re not putting up a huge number and maybe they go hunt a roost and they maybe mess all them geese up in that area now.

Ramsey Russell: It’s funny you broke this subject because this is the 5^th or 6^th podcast I’ve had with this worldwide series and that theme of limit, in fact Ira McCauley and I got in a long discussion the other night about this, it keeps coming up not with just outfitters with everybody. A lot of us it has been a recurring theme in Michigan, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, Alberta now, North Dakota is a recurring theme about this concept of limit driving a lot of hunter behavior. And yesterday was the opening in North Dakota, you all listen to this. Yesterday was the opening in North Dakota Nick and I put a lot of miles on, I’m going to say 150 miles in the morning and 100 miles in the evening. We drove and we saw ducks galore everywhere and he had some other spotters out looking and we went all in on the field, we had to take the quad with the tracks on it across this muddy field, so we didn’t run up the farmer’s field. I’d say every bit of 3 quarters of a mile into that field up to this little slough we set up on where they’ve been seeing 1000’s, literally 1000’s of ducks and hundreds of honkers and the bird didn’t come out and play. I mean we were like, we had all the parties set up, disco ball going and everything and nobody showed up to our party, a few did and it was fun. We shot a nice band, but nonetheless, it just didn’t work out. But we had a great time. You wouldn’t have known it that heck I was counting what was hanging of my strap, but I knew we were off, but you wouldn’t have known it from the demeanor of everybody in the blind we just had a good time.

Nick Maryces: Exactly it is.

Ramsey Russell: It really kind of took a little pressure off because we weren’t shooting a limit. But my point being, we didn’t have to shoot a limit with that particular crowd to have a good time. And here we go again. And all these conversations lately talking about limits and you think – I can see where the farmers are happy for somebody to come out there and bust the roost and get the geese off their property and stay out there all day long and spook geese and educate geese to keep them off their farm. But at the same time hunting quality overall has maybe diminished because of that longer limit. That’s kind of what you’re saying.

Nick Maryces: Yeah, for sure. Because like I said, everybody thinks that because the limits 15, that’s where we’re going to shoot. I’ve been hunting early season quite a few years here, I’ve never did that. I mean I’ve had some pretty awesome shoots but that’s a – and the other way I look at it is, do I want them to hassle of that many birds?

Ramsey Russell: I was just sitting here thinking – yesterday and the day we had what maybe 20 big sky panels and I noticed they were the last birds and end up on the tailgate this afternoon because we kept going for those easy ducks and that’s a chore. It’s not quite like skinning a deer, but it’s getting on up there for a waterfowl that they have to fool is big Canada geese.

Nick Maryces: I think skinning a deer would probably easier you get actually less meat off a deer than if you shot 15 honkers, you end up with a lot of stuff. You better be making it into sausage or you better love eating honkers because you get a lot of meat out of a little shooter honkers.

Ramsey Russell: Somebody saying today that with the wind blowing and the rain hitting my rain hood pretty good at times. I thought, I heard you all talking about a farmer putting a hot wire around his pond to keep those geese out of his field. Did that really work?

Nick Maryces: A lot of the farmers I talked to, he swears by it actually. So North Dakota farmers can get kill permits issued to them by the state to shoot problem geese out their land –

Ramsey Russell: They get depredation permits?

Nick Maryces: Yes, depredation permits. And this farmer said that doesn’t really work, them birds still will come back eventually to them spots. He said he runs a portable solar powered electric fence single strand, he said, them geese walk out of the water one time up into a field, hit the electric fence, he said, they aren’t back and so it’s pretty easy to set up and take down.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, well there’s a lot of things to touch a hot wire that don’t come back and touch it again. I had this old dog delta that we were out hunting out in west Texas one day, I think we were hunting sand hills and geese, but whatever we were hunting, she hit a hot wire. It was in tall grass, it was one of the single strand hot wires and she hit that wire and then on the very same trip I stepped on the wire to step over the wire and not knowing she would come behind my foot came off and it hit her in the belly again. That dog avoided wire period any kind of wire for the rest of her life. In fact, she was digging holes in the flower bed one time my wife said you got to fix this, I thought about it for a little while and I went and cut some coat hanger about a foot long everywhere, she dug a hole. I cut some coat hangers and I put it on a stick and put it right there in that hole, she never dug another hole right there in that flower bed, just having a single piece of wire foot long that dog avoided wire. So I get, but I never really heard it applied to Canada geese or waterfowl.

Nick Maryces: That guy swear out. He said, he wished more farmers would do that instead. Because I understand where the farmers are coming from, they do quite a bit of damage, especially if it’s a high production because they’ll just walk right up from over their raise them young ones and teach them how to eat –

Ramsey Russell: Start grazing. Yeah, start eating that stuff pretty good. What do you think about this weekend? Like I know I’m thankful of course we’ve become friends and I get to come up here and hunt with you all, but I noticed you don’t start your clients until later this week. I don’t know if I’m family because your mom wants me to share my steak with her the other night or a friend but I know you all always reserve this weekend strictly for friends and family and that’s pretty darn important to you, isn’t it?

Nick Maryces: Yeah. As soon as we ever started guide before, we ever started guiding in North Dakota, I told Matt that I would never guide either opener, resident opener or non-resident opener for ducks in North Dakota. I reserved them for just friends and family. It’s kind of the 2 weekends that I get to go have fun, it’s not about shooting a lot of ducks or birds in general and we hope that kill some birds makes it a little more enjoyable but it’s not as stressful on me, it kind of leads up to put my guide opener which is on Monday.

Ramsey Russell: A lot of us that hunt a lot with clients, it’s all about the client experience that’s what we do, we’re in the hospitality business and it’s fun to go out with friends and family and not have to entertain somebody and just kind of get back to the roots of why we’re in this business anyway because we really enjoy duck hunting. For what it is and what it ain’t, some days it’s chicken salad and some days chickens shit but it’s all chicken and rain or shine, we’re out there doing it. Here’s something I want to talk to you about because I think this is real different to us southern hunters. You’ve got a Canada goose hunting culture up here that’s real different from southern hunters. We do not have a true Canada goose hunting culture like you guys do. But the other thing is back home the whole drake thing – I’ve  been in camps that you pay a $10 or $20 fine if you shoot a hen mallard or hen pintail, up here the birds are basic molt they’re brown more or less you got to really pay attention and you’ve got to abide the hen limit and for that matter, you know especially like yesterday it was very cloudy, it was starting to get dark when the flocks really started working in and when those birds would come above us and bank, yeah those are pintails or mallards it’s very easy to see but when they would come head on downwind of us started getting low immediately we had to really pay attention because after 1 or 2 volleys we were done on pin tails that adds a whole new level. What are some of the – I remember last year when God, there were tons of mallards and there were a lot of young birds working in the field and we were really trying hard not to shoot any hens at all and it took a lot of whispering up and down the blind. What are some of the things you look for? What are some of the things just kind of – could you discuss that a little bit? I think it’s very interesting. I’ll tell you what, somebody have enough to buy a new pickup truck if they instituted a $10 or $20 fine on hens up here. You can have it, especially on a clear day but you got to throttle back and really watch those birds and listen to them once you’ve got your 2 hens on the strap you’re done. I mean now you can only target those drakes.

Nick Maryces: Oh, yeah. One of the first thing you can do is, if it’s a smaller group as they’re working in listen to them. If you can hear drake whistling if you’re watching that flock and we’re getting them close that you can key in on where he’s located in that little flock. Kind of using each other as spotters whispering down the blinds, hey third bird back watch the bottom bird leave two one’s of drakes and once you picked them birds stay with them. Keep your eyes on them, 2 or 3 –

Ramsey Russell: Like watching that ping pong ball don’t take your eyes off of it.

Nick Maryces: And then the other thing we do is try and get them as close as we can. Right away you can look for the separation on the chest drakes right now are most of them are putting out chestnut colors feathers on the chest. But an old hen can trick you sometimes if the lighting is bad. And it’ll look just as brown as or that color as a drake, sometimes if they’re working real close you can look at bill color. Last year we had some of –

Ramsey Russell: On clear days.

Nick Maryces: 3 frames in the sun you can look at the bill and tell them.

Ramsey Russell: That’s the only way I could tell the hatch year drakes was bill color but it was clear mornings and the sun angle was right, the wind was right or whatever, they were working and banking good and you could pick that light olive bill color. The hens still got a little bit of orange even if it’s not the dark orange and with the black saddle. But it adds a whole new level of challenge and I really kind of enjoyed because up here, you all can work those birds close at times.

Nick Maryces: Oh, yeah. Like you’re talking about the gadwalls might only get one pass or something. Up here if ducks are working right, they’re going to give you multiple opportunities, heck you can even get them to land, check them out on the ground, if they want to work right that day. About the first 2 weeks is the hardest part of our season for picking drakes, you get to mid-October, you can start picking drakes. Yeah, mid-October on me and my buddies, if you shoot a hen you get called out for it. Your bar tabs is going to be a little higher at the end of the hunt.

Ramsey Russell: He’s who shoots the most hens.

Nick Maryces: Buys the first round.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah or any hen buys the first round.

Nick Maryces: The toughest part was picking hens and from drakes and

Stuff is, we put on a youth hunt every year. I love taking kids out and they still even on the youth hunt, which is a weekend before our resident opener, we still have to pick drakes out. The kids can only shoot 2 hens and that’s something in my opinion that should be changed. I wish I had the state would just – state and the feds could get together and just let kids up here shoot 5 mallards and still only shoot one pin tail that’s fine. I can tell the kids if they’re oh these are mallards, this is a pin tail. But the first day we hunted, we had 4 kids in the blind halfway through the hunt, I couldn’t let him shoot anymore because we were close on our hen limit and I was having a hard time picking drakes out and for me to tell a little kid, hey, third bird back in the middle, you can shoot him that gets a little tough.

Ramsey Russell: Well, a young inexperienced hunters has got so much going on anyway. I mean, they don’t – fumbling to get their gun up, they’ve got to get your gun mount remember everything your daddy told him about lease, I mean that’s a lot to keep up with for a kid and I never really thought about what you said, but that would be a great idea at the time and age that we need increased hunter participation, that would sure be a great step in the right direction. I mean it kind of sucks to put a kid in a time out box for shooting a hen over. You know what I’m saying? By God, he needs to get them birds in his hands just so he can see what’s, what. He’ll pick up like the rest of us do with experience and that’s a great idea.

Nick Maryces: Yeah, I mean even a veteran duck hunter, they struggle this time of year to see that drake from a hen. I mean, so let alone a week earlier, I mean we’re probably shooting ducks that weekend that just had learned to fly like a week before. They’re pretty tough on their coloring –

Ramsey Russell: Hunting water obviously.

Nick Maryces: Yeah. I literally had to throttle it back till I was like, if we get a drake a single that comes in that I know 100% it’s a drake, I’ll let you guys shoot it. If we get an odd duck here and there, which we finally did we had a wigeon and come in – kids were pretty pumped to shoot, I was pretty pumped that they shot it. Like Ramsey said it takes some time, they don’t need to be trying to pick hens and drakes because I’m used to calling the shots and with grown adults as normally as soon as you call that shot call goes out, there’s rounds going downrange. It’s enjoyable for me to sit back and listen to the kids like call that shot. It’s a long pause before that first shot goes out.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a federal law and I don’t know how amenable or the federal government would be to accommodating youth like that. In the state of Mississippi when my kids were growing up there was a special black powder season which typically when parts of the state rut would hit for white tail deer and well that meant that I had to not only have a black powder rifle for myself, but my 2 kids that’s pretty expensive undertaking. You know what I’m saying? And for the average guide, it’s something else. And boy the state of Mississippi came up, I thought it was genius. They came up with an idea that youth hunters can use a high powered rifle from start to finish from the youth season which runs a week before rifle season opens in the state of Mississippi, those Children are allowed to shoot a high powered rifle at deer until the close of season. And during that which we got some special kind of hunts like the black powder, that they can go out there and just hunt and that to me to get hunters involved or get the youth involved in hunting, we should make accommodations like that. I don’t even know how to begin getting the federal government to care let alone institute something like that. They’re too busy trying to get Trump out of office up on Capitol Hill to worry about youth hunters. But anyway, so as its 1^st of September, right now I just seems to me that we’ve hunted all local birds, those were all these ducks were raised right here in North Dakota, resident Canada’s, the ducks and we also saw some swans. And those birds are, this is their nesting and breeding right here too. What happens between now and what would you tell me, you all run until December?

Nick Maryces: Yeah, end of December. 2 days before Christmas.

Ramsey Russell: What would be like just a general progression from here to then?

Nick Maryces: So, we normally start our season off with early October is all your local ducks, local raised birds in general. Other than molt geese, which we picked these out of the – up from the north yesterday. But then I would say about mid-October around the 15^th mark, we’ll probably see our first push of birds come down out of the north. On our first push, we’re going to get lesser’s and cackler’s probably the first waves of them coming down and mallards with them and then right around that Halloween mark, that’s when we’ll get a push of snows down, normally there’s a wave of mallards behind them or with them. And then mid-November to right around freeze up that’s when we’ll get a probably one of the last bushes on the east side of the state at least. More big honkers coming out of Canada, the last push of the ducks coming down. Season on the east side of North Dakota runs till right around December 2^nd. But we’ve had a few years where we’ve been able to hunt till then but we normally freeze up Western part of the state is where it actually stays open through December right around, I think it closes between Christmas and New Year’s when it closes. And out there, in the month of December is its honker time, you’re shooting all giants. There is ducks but they’re definitely tough to hunt that time of year. You got to put some weather in front of them.

Ramsey Russell: Like what do you mean? You got to get weather conditions right where they’re hitting these fields or what?

Nick Maryces: No, so what I’m saying is, these birds have been hunted for so long but they will only come out for about the last 10 minutes of shooting light that’s all they feed during the day. But if you get a day that’s going to snow, messes them all up and just go into that field and you got to wait on them, but they will trickle off that river in the daylight.

Ramsey Russell: Does anybody hunts in river?

Nick Maryces: Not really. The river actually used to be closed the 2 waterfowl hunting at one point. That part of the Missouri river used to be considered a waterfowl rest area all the way from the dam on all the way to the South Dakota border. And then through time they opened it up to where you can now hunt the whole river 4 ducks, but not that many people do. And late in December it’s not like there’s tons and tons of them. Most of what’s on the river is geese. And then it still is closed. You can’t hunt geese from Washburn up to you can’t hunt geese on the river, it’s still closed.

Ramsey Russell: And then violate sanctuary by state law.

Nick Maryces: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: I’ll be.

Nick Maryces: So I mean, that December time frame that’s when everybody is targeting. If you’re going to hunt, that’s when we’re hunting big hunks and the feeds get unreal at that time of year. I mean I normally won’t even stop slowly the truck down unless it’s over 5000-6000 honkers in the field. I’m normally looking for that number of 8 to 10 because then it could be a show.

Ramsey Russell: It can be a spectacle and those big Canada geese are not going further south are they at all?

Nick Maryces: No. In fact, the Missouri River only freezes if it gets cold and when I’m in cold I mean like 50 below zero for a week straight. And all they’re going to do is bump down to where there is open water as soon as it warms up to break that ice free, they’re going to be right back up there. This is as far south as they go. They’ll stay right below the dam on and scuttle a way around.

Ramsey Russell: So to get on those big feed you all were talking about today while we were picking birds, it needs to be -50?

Nick Maryces: No, the colder the better. If it’s cold they’re going to come, it’s a war of attrition. They’re going to come out and feed, these geese don’t even care that you’re there, they just know that eventually you’re going to quit shooting us and you’re going to give us this field. It’s pretty much what it is. It’s just to see who draws the short straw and getting shot.

Ramsey Russell: I’m wondering how bad my teeth would be chattering in -50 and how far that sound would carry on in the quiet winter day. Nick Maryces: Probably the coldest I’ve ever hunted in is, we did a hunt 3 of us did a couple years ago that it was 20 below zero, the wind was blowing probably 15 miles an hour and it was probably 2 of the most amazing days of honker hunting that I’ve ever had. We could have been done in the first 15 minutes, but we sat back, did a little band hunting looked for some quill legged geese took turns calling each other out, trying to shoot birds, giving each other shit if they missed.

Ramsey Russell: Speaking of bands, am I still going to be welcomed back if Cooper’s in retirement next year?

Nick Maryces: That would be tough. She can come with and just riding side by side. She can sit in the blind beside me.

Ramsey Russell: I may bring a dog bed and keep her in there. She is a band magnet, isn’t she?

Nick Maryces: Yes, she is.

Ramsey Russell: 2 years 2 bands. I told you last year we were up here guys and I said, all these mallards and Canada geese, you all must shoot a lot of bands and Nick was like, we hardly ever shoot one. I said, we’re fixing to kill one. I guarantee you this yellow dog here, we’re fixing to kill a band. And I think the next day or day after she did bring one in. And then yesterday, well actually Friday night over hamburgers, cheeseburgers there at the local joint I said, oh yeah, I said, my own problem is I’d rather have a mallard band in that damn Canada goose band coming in. You should have seen everybody look at me when that big Canada goose come in banded. But anyway, hey look the world’s a whole lot bigger than a backyard. I appreciate you all listening to these stories. Check out Instagram @Ramseyrussel.Getducks. Try to do a lot of storylines with all these road trips and everything we do. I appreciate you all listening. If you’ve got any suggestions of topics or people, give me a shout, put me in touch. Thank you all.

Rocky Leflore: Another awesome sit down interview with Ramsey

Russell. Ramsey Russell Worldwide, it’s growing Ramsey. I appreciate you sitting down and doing these, while you’re out and about.

Ramsey Russell: I enjoy it, man, I really do. It’s just the conversations 365 days a year Rocky, I talk to duck hunters and duck guides and duck people it’s what I do. And so it does tell real easily with what I’m doing anyway and I hope people are enjoying it and I would just take this time to remind people hey, look everybody’s got a story like Jake says and if you know somebody or subject or a topic, call me, shoot me a text, hit me up in a inbox or something. Let me steer me some way because these podcasts are starting to take a life of their own Rocky. The podcast we did with Corey Loffler talking about moat migrators, I thought we did a pretty good job covering it and I got a lot of questions that I realized, I need to follow up on. And it will take that story a little bit further. And I’d like to keep building on it and building on the story of duck hunt. So you guys that are listening, if you’ve got a story or if you’ve got an interesting subject matter that you would like to hear discussed hit me up your story too.

Rocky Leflore: Well, thank you again, Ramsey. I know 3 or 4 that’s coming down the pipe in the next couple of weeks. Really good interviews, I want to thank you again for doing this while you’re out. I want to thank all of you that listen to this edition of The End of the Line Podcast, powered by ducksouth.com.

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